


Mind's Eye

by obscurelyTainted



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 01:19:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4371656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obscurelyTainted/pseuds/obscurelyTainted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake wants to travel the world, but doesn't get very far.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mind's Eye

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick drabble I wrote in my free time, nothing too fancy. I'm never going to like it, but here you go. Sadstuck for the soul.

Dirk could see him, in his mind's eye. 

_"And... Done!" With one final click, Jake's final ticket back to Austin was secured. He turned to Dirk with a wide grin, closing his laptop. "You'd better enjoy this last month with me, old chum, 'cos I know you'll miss me later!" Dirk had a slight smile as he spoke. "Of course. I always enjoy my time with you." His voice, though soft, was filled with emotion, and he punctuated his words with a quick peck to the cheek._

He'dwanted to travel the world. He always had, and was beyond elated when Dirk invited him to live together in Texas for a while. But Jake could only stay in one place for so long; his adventurous spirit compelled him to travel to farther and more exotic locales. So he did. He planned a trip around the world that would take him a year to complete- enough to cure his cabin fever, not enough to make him homesick. He would have loved to bring Dirk along, but the engineer couldn't leave his work. 

_They held hands, hot against the cool night air as mosquitoes buzzed around the bed of Dirk's truck. A light spring breeze blew as two pairs of longing, starry eyes gazed skyward. Jake pointed out the constellations he knew, aided by Dirk's explanations of the types of stars in them. They eventually exhausted Jake's impressive repertoire of astrological knowledge, as well as Dirk's astrophysical one, and simply sat beneath the slowly fading stars. After a while, Dirk cleared his throat and spoke. "I'll miss you," he whispered. Jake squeezed his hand. "Same to you... Two weeks left. Don't worry, we've still got one another for now." Dirk hummed and leaned closer to Jake. They said nothing for the rest of the night, but their feelings needed no words._

They had done their best to make the most of their time together. Dirk had even taken the last week off just so that he and Jake could spend it on day trips around the city, in aquariums and concerts and the museums that Jake loved so much. 

_His trip was coming along nicely. Jake had already Skyped Dirk from California and now Mexico, and had then informed him that he had a red-eye flight scheduled to Panama City. The Texan smiled inwardly when he thought of Jake gushing to his plane-mates about the adventures to be had at his next stop. Shaking his head, he flopped down on his couch, fishing between the cushions for the remote._

He hadn't even meant to check the news. Far from it, in fact; he'd been planning on logging into Netflix and watching MLP until his brain melted out of his head. It was just what happened to be on. 

_His relaxed posture jerked into a tense one, and his hands shook as he stared at the horrifying picture on the screen. Jaw clenching, he turned up the volume. "...plane was en route to Panama City when the left wing failed due to fatigue cracks, reports say. The pilot was miraculously able to slow the descent enough to prevent an explosion, but the impact left five dead and thirty-one injured. In other-" Dirk leapt up from the couch, heart jackhammering. He had to know! He had to find out, to check, to make absolutely fucking sure that his boyfriend was okay, was still breathing, was still **alive** andhe needed to- to stay calm. Think about this rationally, logically. Dirk took a deep breath. It was entirely possible that Jake hadn't even been on that plane; there were multiple each day. He opened their shared laptop and hastily searched Jake's inbox for the receipt. After two long, agonizing minutes, he found it. The flight number. "One eleven, one eleven, one eleven..." He murmured under his breath, frantically searching for the number of the fallen plane. He saw a brief headline and followed it to a page that seemed to have every number in pi but ones. After a moment of harried searching, he found it. The plane number was..._

It all happened so quickly. He only briefly recalled flying out the door and careening towards the airport in his shiny black Camaro. He drove with reckless abandon, the only thought in his mind being Jake's wellbeing. In retrospect, that wasn't such a good idea. 

_He calmed down just enough to follow the basic rules of traffic, and cursed the driver in front of him. The light had been green for a full ten seconds, and they hadn't moved an inch. Muttering obscenities under his breath, he pulled into the rightmost lane and shot into the intersection- just as a semi barreled around the corner._

God. He was such a fucking idiot. What the hell had he been thinking? 

_He realized his fatal mistake the instant he made it. For a split second, he contemplated slamming on his brakes, but realized with grim conviction that it wouldn't do him any good at all. The semi smashed_ _full-on into the side of his car and he felt as though he fell in slow motion. As the Camaro was flipped sideways end over end, he thought angrily about his short, unfinished life, then heart-wrenchingly sadly about Jake's._ _As he flipped around over and over across the intersection, just before landing upside-down on the crushed, jagged roof and smashing his prefrontal cortex, he reflected briefly on his final few months with Jake. He died immediately thereafter._

_> ~<_

Jake English woke up in a hospital.

_The doctors told him what had happened, that he was lucky to be alive, that he had suffered minimal injuries and would be fully functional in a year's time. He told them he had to talk to Dirk. The doctors side-eyed him and said that they had already tried to contact loved ones, and perhaps he should rest some more. Jake insisted, saying that his boyfriend would want to hear his voice, and wouldn't rest easy until he knew for sure that he was still alive. He knew his Dirk. They sighed and told him that it just wasn't possible, and they were very sorry. Jake's blood ran cold and he demanded to know why he couldn't at least talk to Dirk- was something wrong?_

After a long and painful talk, Jake had been left alone to gather his thoughts. The end of the day found him still sitting stock-still on his bed, eyes vacant and unfocused. He still hadn't come to terms with it. 

_Weeks passed. He was shipped back home, and was still living in a daze. He made it back just in time for the funeral. Due to Dirk's grisly death, there wasn't a viewing. But, as he stood silently by the slowly-lowering casket, Jake didn't mind. He didn't want his last memory of Dirk to be a shadow of his former self, a ghastly impersonation of his glowing, intelligent boyfriend. He had many beautiful memories of their time spent together. Nowhere near enough, but still..._

Jake could see him, in his mind's eye. 


End file.
